Nintendo Is Working On New Console Ideas, Says Miyamoto

In an interview with Associated Press, Nintendo executive and creative visionary Shigeru Miyamoto mentioned that divisions within Nintendo are hard at work on new console ideas - but that the Wii U is still very much the focus.

"We're focused on providing a robust line-up of Wii U software for next year," he says. "It seems like we've managed to do that this year and people are very happy with what we've done on Wii U. For the time being, our focus is on the Wii U hardware, but Nintendo as a whole has groups working on ideas for new hardware systems. While we're busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be."

Whatever's next, Miyamoto wants it to launch with a new Mario, it seems. "From early on, I wanted Mario to be that character in the digital world, so that with each digital evolution, he was there to usher in the next era," he said. "I think that maybe when we release the next hardware system, you can look forward to seeing Mario take on a new role or in a new game."

It's pretty normal that Nintendo's R&D department would be playing with hardware ideas - the company is well-known for hardware experimentation, and the Wii U itself may well have been around as an idea since Nintendo's experimentation with second-screen functionality on the GBA and Gamecube.

Miyamoto also talked about the Wii U games that he personally is involved with at the moment, like Zelda and Star Fox. "I like to create gameplay mechanics more than I do stories," he says of the new Star Fox. "The story might not be too different from past Star Fox games, but the gameplay mechanics are going to feel very different because of the two-screen system of the Wii U with the GamePad and TV screen. It will make for a very fun and unique way to play."

As for Zelda, Miyamoto told Associated Press what we already know: that it's returning to an open-world structure. "I can't talk much about it, but one of the things we're working on right now is that, as you play, the world will change and be affected by what you choose to do," he added.

How about they drop the gimmicks and for what they do best and make quality hardware. I love my Wii U but the next console needs to on par with it's rivals and have the third party support. With a standard controller.

Rethinking hardware and creating 'gimmicks' is what Nintendo does best.
And some of those 'gimmicks' become mainstream in gaming, such as touchscreens, analogue sticks and rumble features (both the latter first introduced in the N64). I wonder what the standard controllers would of been like now if Nintendo stuck with a 'standard' controller back then.
I can't help but think how stagnant the gaming industry would of become of it wasn't for Nintendo Always innovating.

Still, I accept that being innovative comes at a price. Developers have to put a lot more time and money into development due to unique control schemes that are completely different from its competitors. In fairly certain that's the main barrier for third party support.

People have been saying this about Nintendo for a while, but when they struck gold with the Wiimote and Wii Sports you saw both Microsoft and Sony shamelessly jumping into the bandwagon of motion controls wanting to capture some of that action.

Whatever you think of Nintendo's strategies, the truth is that they have keep it alone and afloat where other, bigger companies have eventually sunk and kept it being an important competitor to multinational giants like Sony and Microsoft's offerings despite being a comparatively smaller company that only makes videogames. This means that it has no other departments to cushion their R&D (and their failures) expenses. The fact that they risk so much with the hardware under those conditions is nothing short of impressive (not to mention insanely effective from time to time.)

I admire the fact they've always been willing to take risks and try new things such as analog sticks on controllers, force feedback, dual screen gaming, touch screens, motion control. I'm interested in seeing what they can do next.

My money's on them replacing the 3DS/WiiU with a single system that is portable, but easily connects to your tv for big screen gaming; splitting their development teams over two consoles was ok when they had third party support, but doesn't really seem to be working right now.

I've been expecting them to do that ever since Nintendo first allowed connectivity between GBAs and GameCubes. If Nintendo could take the idea of the NVidia Shield and make it practical that would be a fantastic thing.

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